Oliver Rohe

Oliver Rohe (born in 1972 in Beirut) is the author of three novels, Défaut d’origine (Allia, 2003, translated into English by Jane Kuntz, Origin Unknown, Dalkey Archive Press, 2013); Terrain vague (Allia, 2005, translated into English by Laird Hunt, Vacant Lot, Counterpath Press, 2011); Un peuple en petit (Gallimard, 2009). One biographical fiction on Mikhaïl Kalachnikov, Ma dernière création est un piège à taupes (Inculte, 2012); and two essays, Une année en France, with François Bégaudeau and Arno Bertina (Gallimard, 2005) and A fendre le cœur le plus dur, with Jérôme Ferrari (Inculte/Dernière marge, 2015). He is one of the founding members of ‘Inculte’ collective and publishing house. His books are translated into English, German and Italian.

During his residency, Oliver will be working on a long-term project dealing with the civil war in Lebanon (1975-1990) and its resurgences in present time, notably a lynching incident occurred in 2010 in a village south of the country. The book is an investigation on that tragic incident as well as a personal and fragmented recount of the author’s experience of the civil war. Through both these themes, explored in various forms and genres, Oliver’s project is a reflection on the ways language and image represent violence in arts, especially in literature.